Griggs courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., Dak. [N.D.]) 1885-1902, 1887-03-18
Our Washington Letter.

WASHINGTON, D. e., March IL, 1887.
Notwithstanding the adjournment Of |
congress will continue, for while at |
least, to send you weekly Washington
letter. Interest in national affairs is per-
enn,al, and it should be 80 with the
American citizens of both sexes. and of |
sufficient intelligence to know what is
going on ut the headquarters Of the
great nation, of which the people in
such an intimate and responsible way
are part, can think Of no higher duty
of the press than To educate its readers
and to keep it alive to the fact that they |
are the constituents, not of town, q
county or state merely, but of q great !
nation, essaying the sublime experiment
of self government, and that III the gov
ernment Of the. United States is en-
barked a richer and more promising
freightage Of human hope and endeavor
than has before been known in tho his
tory of our planet. We read with inter
est the pages of Roman and Grecian his
tory; We dwell with rapture Oh the dark
romantic volumes Of the middle ages,
and opon the vivid narrative of the pro-
gress of civilization as portrayed by the
modern writer's of France and Of Eng
land.
If the noblest study of mankind is
man, these can not but be useful, but
they are useful especially in that they
afford us the means Of comparative
study of our time and country. Never
before or elsewhere has the touch be-
tween the people and the government
been 50 close as it 10 in the United States.
More than ten thousand newspapers,
assisted by the telegraph and the latest
printing appliances keep the people in
formed Of measures and events trans
piring at the capital and the rear and re-
mote parts Of Che union. No citizen who
is not recreant to the dearest trust ever
vouchsated to msn can be indifferent to
the manner and even to the details Of
], his government. Ae should study it
with the best light his time and means
afford. realizing that he cannot escape
transmitting it impaired Or improved to
his posterity. Itis not in the powerof
Jay Gould to give to his children as rich
a gift as intelligent. benefcient, enfran-
chised American citizenship can bestow
on the generations to come. The man
who confines his attention to his own
affairs, no matter how pure and up
right his life. can be good man only in
a narrow sense. If he fails to contribute
by his voice and his vote to the purlfi-
cation and the intelligent administration
of public affairs he hides like q coward
while criminals monopolize the polls, and
send theK kind to the state legislatures
and to Washington.
It has been common of late to speak
Of the wickedness of Washington. The
city is no better and no worse than the
people make it. You must remember
that che citizens Of your capital arc help
less and are only in limited sense rel
sponsible for their government. There
are 250, 600. people in the District Of
Columbia, but they cannot vote. The
president appoints three commissioners
who are entrusted with the government
under laws enacted by congress. Send
us a better president and we will have
better commissioners, who will in turn
make better Efforts to suppress the hells
|Of vice and degradation. Mr.. Cleve-
lands intentions are good, but his ex-
perience is sadly limited. Many Of his
appointments, while not positively bad.
arc weak. ignorant and incompetent.
This Is notably the case in tire commits
sicner Of patents who, however, is about